By:  Diane Benjamin

Yesterday Joni Painter was interviewed on WJBC.  Besides saying the City should go ahead and raise garbage fees, she stated that maybe the City should run the Coliseum.  The insiders on the Council may have finally realized that Central Illinois Arena Management (CIAM) is a disaster.

The City running the Coliseum would be another fiscal disaster.  The BCPA is run by the City, complete with a unionized workforce and pensions pensions pensions.  The BCPA is costing taxpayers money, therefore you need to pay more for garbage.

Payroll at the Coliseum is budgeted at $1,520,500 for this year:  http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8264

If the City decides to manage the Coliseum themselves, that number would be much higher when pensions and all the benefits enjoyed by City employees are added.  If CIAM wasn’t hiding the payroll, taxpayers would have a better idea of the costs.  It’s a secret though, they just want the subsidy with no accountability.

The City needs to hire a professional management company, yes they do exist.  A company that manages multiple arenas is better able to schedule shows because they can coordinate with performers to appear at multiple sites.  CIAM can’t book acts because their contacts are limited.  If the City ran the Coliseum, the result would be the same.

The only way to control pension expenses is to quit hiring employees.  The City has been doing the opposite because taxpayers are the piggy bank.

How about hiring a professional management company to handle both the Coliseum and the BCPA?  Create a contract with incentives to succeed – with complete transparency.  If Quality of Life means the City is in the entertainment business, the least David Hales can do is minimize general fund dollars.  Services the City used to provide at no additional cost, like garbage pickup, aren’t being paid for with existing tax dollars.  Instead, the Coliseum gets $2.5 million.

Quality of Life expected by taxpayers is being able to drive without dodging potholes.  Soon you will able to drive dodging filled-in potholes.  Which Quality of Life do you want – entertainment or good roads?

Joni Painter doesn’t understand the issues taxpayers do understand.  April 7th send her a message:  Lupe Diaz.

You can listen to her and some of the other candidates here:  http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=711&c=3781&f=4198913

The interview with Alton Franklin is now posted too.